The Bermuda Hundred Campaign
Patients at Point of Rocks Hospital were under the care of two pioneer women in the field of medicine, Clara Barton and Harriet Dame. At a time when most women were not allowed to be near the fighting, these women saw the war close up at field hospitals and on the battlefield.
Clara Barton
When the Civil War began, Clara Barton was employed as a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office. Following the First Battle of Bull Run, she began to organize efforts to raise donations for much needed medical supplies for the troops. Her ability to organize relief efforts earned her a pass which allowed her to travel with army ambulances.
In early June 1864, Clara Barton arrived at Point of Rocks Hospital. The hospital at that time consisted of twenty lines of long, white tents and served the 18th Corps of the Army of the James. Miss Barton was placed in charge of nursing and diet for the section of the hospital that cared for United States Colored Troops units of the 18th Corps. Miss Barton and her staff also made meals and did laundry for the men.
In August 1864, Clara Barton left Point of Rocks and crossed the Appomattox River to a new location closer to the fighting. After the end of the war, she worked for the War Department helping families locate missing soldiers. In 1881 Clara Barton founded the American
Red Cross. She died at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland on April 12, 1912.
Harriet Dame
Harriet P. Dame joined the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment as a hospital matron in June of 1861 and remained with the regiment until the end of the war. She was at or near the fighting wherever the 2nd New Hampshire went. She was captured at Second Manassas but was returned to the Federal lines in recognition of her attention to Confederate and Union wounded alike.
She was appointed matron of the 18th Corps hospital at Point of Rocks in September of 1864 and remained in that position until the end of the war. She was beloved by the troops that she nursed back to health. Of Harriet Dame, Gen. Gilman Marston wrote:
"The sound of hostile guns is well known to her, for her services were not generally in post hospitals, but in field hospitals and upon the battleground itself... In this field work she was a pioneer American nurse."
After the war the New Hampshire legislature voted $500 to Miss Dame for her service which she donated toward the construction of a home for veterans of the 2nd New Hampshire. She served as a pension clerk for the Treasury Department for 28 years and died in New Hampshire in 1900. A portrait of her was hung in the New Hampshire State House after her death. She was the first woman to be given that honor.
This
sign is dedicated in loving memory of Jean Pyeatt, Nurse, by her children and family
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